retroremakes
January 7th, 2010, 23:20
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/500x_freescale1.jpg (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/freescale1.jpg)The $199 Freescale Smartbook Tablet reference design (http://gizmodo.com/5439215/freescales-199-smartbook-tablet-design-means-tablets-for-everyone-later-this-year) was supposed to be the tablet design that OEMs could easily use to get a product to market fast and cheap. Maybe, but that doesn't mean it's very usable.
It has all the requisite hardware to be a powerful portable device:
7-inch touchscreen (resistive, unfortunately, to keep the design under $200-you'd go up to $250 if any OEM put a capacitive touchscreen on there), 512MB RAM, 4-64GB internal storage, removable microSD slot, an optional 3G modem, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, USB, audio ports, SIM card, speaker, microphone, 3-megapixel webcam, 1900 mAh battery, accelerometer and light sensor.
But the UI? No good. Freescale basically took a Linux build and shoved a couple apps—browser, doc viewer, gallery, media player—on top. They didn't optimize the interface for a tablet, which is evidenced by the fact that you kind of have to use a stylus to navigate. It's not like an iPhone or an Android where you can use your finger to swipe around a webpage, you actually have to use the scrollbars like on a normal computer.
This is the main problem with the device. It's not customized in any meaningful way to make it a good finger-only experience. Just substituting a capacitive touchscreen for the resistive won't solve the problem; you'll have to completely redesign the OS in order to make the interface easy to use without having to pull out a stylus. A prime example is the onscreen keyboard: the keys are small and unresponsive, you need to manually activate and dismiss it to use. Even the JooJoo (http://www.gizmodo.com/tag/joojoo) managed to get a gesture-based OS on their tablet.
There's nothing wrong with the performance of the device: you can run 720p video decently smooth, and web pages render at an acceptable rate. But until Freescale, or one of its OEMs, puts a better OS on there, it's basically a keyboardless computer. And the tablets of the early 2000s proved that those don't work.
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/0/di</img> (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/0/da)
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:V_sGLiPBpWU)
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_YbgysjNvdY/freescale-tablet-hands-on-this-is-last+gen)
It has all the requisite hardware to be a powerful portable device:
7-inch touchscreen (resistive, unfortunately, to keep the design under $200-you'd go up to $250 if any OEM put a capacitive touchscreen on there), 512MB RAM, 4-64GB internal storage, removable microSD slot, an optional 3G modem, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, USB, audio ports, SIM card, speaker, microphone, 3-megapixel webcam, 1900 mAh battery, accelerometer and light sensor.
But the UI? No good. Freescale basically took a Linux build and shoved a couple apps—browser, doc viewer, gallery, media player—on top. They didn't optimize the interface for a tablet, which is evidenced by the fact that you kind of have to use a stylus to navigate. It's not like an iPhone or an Android where you can use your finger to swipe around a webpage, you actually have to use the scrollbars like on a normal computer.
This is the main problem with the device. It's not customized in any meaningful way to make it a good finger-only experience. Just substituting a capacitive touchscreen for the resistive won't solve the problem; you'll have to completely redesign the OS in order to make the interface easy to use without having to pull out a stylus. A prime example is the onscreen keyboard: the keys are small and unresponsive, you need to manually activate and dismiss it to use. Even the JooJoo (http://www.gizmodo.com/tag/joojoo) managed to get a gesture-based OS on their tablet.
There's nothing wrong with the performance of the device: you can run 720p video decently smooth, and web pages render at an acceptable rate. But until Freescale, or one of its OEMs, puts a better OS on there, it's basically a keyboardless computer. And the tablets of the early 2000s proved that those don't work.
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/0/di</img> (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/0/da)
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/1/di</img> (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WfoTNXhmJCqZTbg01SFgI2Szntc/1/da)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=_YbgysjNvdY:8mDO6m_kAjc:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/_YbgysjNvdY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_YbgysjNvdY/freescale-tablet-hands-on-this-is-last+gen)